Cushioned Treats – DIY Games for Dogs

Hello you lovely pet parent, you!

Patience is a hugely underrated skill for our dogs to learn – which you’ll know if like most of us – you’ve literally been hounded by your dog because they think there’s a remote chance of you whipping their lead out.

Being able to ask them to just wait patiently for you is useful in all sorts of contexts…
Someone at the door.
A cat appearing suddenly when you’re walking down the street.
Dinner time.
When visitors come into the house.

Here’s a game where at first you can ask them to be patient with you – once – before you release them.

Then as they get better at staying patiently you can add more stays between cushions.

You can build up the difficulty and start giving them extra treats to reward lovely no-whinging patience between long cushion waits.

‘Cushioned Treats’ Step by Step – Dog Games for Fun

via GIPHY

Here we go …

1. A game to develop your dog’s patience…
   
   
2. Get your dog’s attention and ask them to ‘Stay’
   
   
3. Throw a few cushions around the room…
   
   
4. Pop your dog’s treats under the cushions…
   
   
5. When you’ve finished, wait for your dog to look at you and say ‘Go’
   
   
6. Enjoy watching your dog snaffling for goodies!

Tips

• If your dog sets off too soon, say ‘Go’ anyway, they will begin to associate the word with the action.

• As they improve see if you can get a ‘stay’ between cushions.

Thank you

Thank you to Oscar @oscarthegoldenlab11 for being this week’s lovely assistant.

You can see more of him here: https://www.instagram.com/oscarthegoldenlab11/

Enjoy!

Darren